Come Dance With Me?
by iorderedshrimp
Summary: Santana, Brittany and the New Directions attend Coach Beiste's belated wedding reception.


**Come Dance With Me?**

"And one last thing before the bell rings; I've invited Coach Beiste to come tell you her big announcement in person," Mr. Schuester started as Shannon Beiste entered the choir suite with a noticeably chipper gait. Turning to his co-worker, Mr. Schuester continued, "So Coach Beiste please, take it away."

"Thanks Will." Shannon took the floor at the front of the room and announced, "I'll get right to it, kiddos: over the break, I got myself hitched." She cracked into a wide, schoolgirl smile as she held up her left hand.

Turning to his students, Mr. Schuester encouraged, "Isn't that great?"

Recognizing their cue, the club all offered their mumbled, shocked congratulations. Thrilled by the news, Kurt inquired, "So who is the lucky fella?"

"His name is Cooter Menkins," Shannon answered.

"The football recruiter?" Finn asked in disbelief.

"The one and the same," she confirmed. "I feel as lucky as a mountain goat in Kentucky."

"Wait, hold up, his name is Cooter? Like actually, his name is Cooter? Cooter the recruiter?" Santana quizzed, nearly beside herself.

"Yes…"

Interrupting what was sure to be another snarky comment by the cheerleader, Rachel jumped in, "So how was the ceremony? I'm sure it was it beautiful."

"Well, actually we eloped over the break."

"But I thought you couldn't elope," Brittany chimed in, concerned.

Mr. Schuester asked, "What do you mean, Brittany?"

"You know, everyone's always saying, 'You can't elope, this; I can't elope, that...' I just thought it was like a universal rule or something."

Santana glanced over at her girlfriend to determine exactly how serious she was being. She found Brittany looking straight ahead, completely stoic.

"Well, um, we did elope… and so Rachel, we didn't really have a big ceremony…" Shannon explained, unsure how to react to Brittany's comment.

Her girlfriend finally returning her gaze, Santana caught the telltale twitch of Brittany's lips, giving the girl's joke away.

"…Which is why Cooter and I have decided to throw a small reception here in the school's gymnasium this Friday."

Having confirmed the genius of Brittany's joke, Santana leaned over and whispered into her girlfriend's ear, "God, I love you."

"Yeah, I know," Brittany whispered back, failing miserably to contain a proud smirk.

"And I have volunteered the New Directions to sing for the reception; anyone who wants a solo can have one," Mr. Schuester announced. "I'll post the sign-up sheet on my office door."

"It is just so sweet of you pumpkins to perform at our reception. Thank y'all so much."

Puck raised his hand as he stated, "I have a question."

"What is it Puckerman?" Shannon asked.

"Are there going to be refreshments? …You know, and punch?"

"Noah, don't even think about it," Mr. Schuester returned.

"What?"

"Coach Sylvester will be there."

"Fine."

x

"Hey Brittany, don't forget: you're up after Blaine. And his song's almost over," Rachel reminded her as she came back to sit at their table. Finn, Rachel, Mercedes, Shane, Quinn, Brittany and Santana all sat at the same table at the edge of McKinley High's gymnasium hosting the belated wedding reception for the school's football coach.

"Thanks," Brittany replied. She turned back to face Santana in the seat next to her. "I got to go, babe. I hope you like my song."

"Wait, I totally forgot to ask you: what song are you singing?" Santana questioned.

"You'll see." Brittany's eyes slowly drifted from Santana's eyes to land on the girl's mouth. Leaning her head toward Santana, Brittany licked her lips and halted a breath in her chest. After a brief moment, Brittany's attention swept back up to her girlfriend's eyes as she grabbed Santana's hand and kissed the back of the girl's knuckles. Standing from her seat, Brittany smiled a happy, giddy smile at Santana and then turned to Quinn seated in the chair on her other side. To Quinn, she continued, "And you don't eat all of my cookies while I'm gone – for your own good. Or else I'll make Santana get me some more." Dropping down to a stage whisper, Brittany added, "…And she won't like that."

Quinn gave Brittany a hefty eye-roll as the girl made her way over to the stage. Left with just Santana's company on their side of the table, Quinn defended, "I ate one cookie."

"You ate two and a half," Santana corrected. "And she's right, I'll be pissed if I have to get her more." Tilting her head and squinting her eyes, Quinn shot Santana a disbelieving look. "…Well, on account of _you,_ anyway."

Quinn hummed under her breath before giving Santana a smug, knowing smile. After a long moment of Quinn holding that look, Santana asked, "What?"

"So you two don't kiss in public, huh?"

"What are you talking about?"

"Just now," Quinn answered, "she wanted to kiss you but she kissed your hand instead."

"So?"

"So…"

"Listen, lately I've had a lot of people know a whole lot about me that I might not have wanted them to know. And Brit and I were stripped of the right to tell people when we felt like we were ready." Santana glanced around the room filled with the older relatives of both the bride and groom. "Look, I'm proud of who I love, but I'm not exactly dying to shove my tongue down my girlfriend's throat in the middle of a gym full of strangers who probably still think Fox News is," with air-quotes, "'fair and balanced' and have NRA cards in their wallets, okay?"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa – I totally didn't mean it like that, alright?" Quinn quickly countered. "I'm sorry. It's just you guys are like, the perfect couple and it's a shame you can't really act like one. That's all I was saying."

"Yeah, well…" Santana trailed off. She toured a long look around the gym before asking, "How many of them do you think have seen the commercial?"

Before Quinn could answer, applause broke out in the gym, ushering Blaine from the stage and welcoming Brittany in his place. Both Quinn and Santana turned to watch a nervous Brittany shuffle left and right from foot to foot as her music began playing.

After finding Santana's eyes in the crowd, Brittany began singing, "Come to my window, crawl inside, wait by the light of the moon…" and cracked a shy smile when she could see Santana's breath catch from across the room. Seeing Santana's reaction to her song choice gave Brittany a boost of confidence and her feet stopped shuffling and started swaying her back and forth instead.

Forgetting entirely to hide her complete and utter adoration for Brittany, Santana's face shone bright and proud at her wonderful, beautiful, brave girlfriend singing her a love song in front of everyone around them. Even as Quinn, Rachel and Mercedes across the table were shooting pleased, knowing glances between the two girlfriends, Santana enjoyed the lack of self-deprecating panic she had been accustomed to for so many years. After such a long time of trying to suppress the love in her heart and its subsequent effects from showing on her face, Santana realized she was starting to get used to the comfort and lightness of shedding the fortified wall she had carried around her heart.

As the others seated at the table began to turn their conversations back to one another, Santana continued listening intently and thought back to a particularly guilty memory of when Brittany had asked her to sing the same Melissa Etheridge song with her and she had turned her down. She thought about the offer Brittany made to take her on a date to BreadStix in the same conversation – an offer in which she also refused with a lie she told both of them for heartbreakingly too long.

"…Giving away promises I know that I can't keep. Nothing fills the blackness that has seeped into my chest…"

For them, heartbreak was a thing of the past, something they had worked hard to overcome. Santana cleared away her guilt, knowing she could now keep all of her promises to Brittany. And buy her all the shrimp in the world.

"…I need you in my blood, I am forsaking all the rest. Just to reach you…"

Up on stage, Brittany bounced around as she sang, light on her feet and excited at the world. She cherished the fact that Santana seemed enraptured by her performance and she felt rather pleased with herself for her song choice. Realizing that most attendees in the gymnasium probably did not know the full connotation of what this particular song meant, Brittany enjoyed knowing that most of their friends understood, and that Santana certainly did.

Listening to Brittany sing, Santana smiled breathlessly and thought about how weddings used to make her feel sad in a very private way. For a long time, Santana thought that she could never deserve to be in love and she scoffed at the notion to shield her worst fears. For a while after that, weddings made Santana sad in a different way, with the knowledge that marriage was a privilege for those more 'normal' than herself; that marrying the person she was truly in love with would lack authenticity and legality. Now however, Santana beamed knowing that marrying the girl who cared for her heart was her deepest, most sacred wish and that she didn't need the government's approval to inform her of the legitimacy of their love.

"…I don't care what they think, I don't care what they say. What do they know about this love anyway? Come to my window, crawl inside, wait by the light of the moon. Come to my window, I'll be home soon."

Even though most reception-goers had continued to chat over her singing, Brittany held Santana's undivided attention for the length of the song – earning more than enough attention to prompt a giddy curtsy at the end of her performance. Brittany hopped off the stage and helped push Artie up the ramp for his song with Sam, Finn and Puck.

"…So what about you Santana?"

As Brittany started her way back over to their table, Santana spun around in her seat to meet Quinn, Rachel and Mercedes staring back at her, expectant.

Santana had clearly missed something. "Huh?"

"So you think you'll have a crazy wedding someday? Invite a quadrillion people, have the towering cake and all?" Quinn asked again.

"Uhhh… I didn't used to," Santana answered, suddenly shy, before looking down and pushing a cookie crumb back and forth with her fork over her clear plastic plate.

"Oh good grief," Quinn returned, rolling her eyes again. "You've turned to mush!"

"Poor Brittany – you're going to be such a Bridezilla," Mercedes teased from the other side of the table.

"No I'm not," Santana replied, aghast, before shoving Quinn's shoulder. "God!"

"Hey! What was that for?" Quinn complained.

"That was for Mercedes. Pass it on – I couldn't reach her," Santana explained.

"So rude."

"Hey," Brittany greeted when she reached the table. She started fidgeting to the rhythm of the upbeat song Artie, Sam, Finn and Puck were all jamming out and Brittany finally held out her hand to Santana. "Come dance with me?"

Quickly looking around, Santana fumbled, "Uh, Brittany, I don't-" as a stinging voice sounded in her head, _"It's not proper for two girls to dance together."_

"Hey-yo! Brittany, that song was dope!" Sugar announced, suddenly upon their table.

"Thanks," Brittany replied before turning back to Santana. "And uh, yeah, nevermind – that's fine," she returned as she sat in her seat.

Conflicted, Quinn observed her two best friends until an idea hit her. "Sugar!" Quinn shouted to snag the girl starting to walk away. "Hey, do you want to dance?"

"Baby, I was born dancing," Sugar responded with a dramatic dance pose, earning a giggle from Brittany and a disbelieving head shake from Santana. "P.S. I didn't mean that literally."

"Ah, well great," Quinn replied and took Sugar's hand, "then let's go." Quinn led Sugar to the dance floor where Tina with Mike and Shannon with Cooter were already enjoying themselves amongst several other middle-aged couples. The girls began waltzing about like goofs, laughing and twirling each other around.

Watching them, Santana started to ask, "What are th-…" as both she and Mercedes realized what exactly Quinn was trying.

After leaning over to whisper something in her boyfriend's ear, Mercedes stood and held out her hand, "Rachel, would you dance with me?"

"I-…" Rachel suddenly glanced to Santana, to Brittany, to Shane, to Finn onstage, to Santana and back to Mercedes before a light went off behind her eyes. "…Oh! I would love to." They then left to join Quinn and Sugar on the dance floor.

Santana watched as her girl friends all danced like silly dorks with each other on the gym floor and realized exactly what they were doing for her and Brittany. Glancing around the room, Santana gauged the crowd's reaction to the pairs dancing together before she turned and looked at her girlfriend, greeted by a giggly smirk radiating from Brittany's face.

Holding out her hand once more, Brittany again asked, "Come dance with me?"

After nodding her head, Santana was led to the dance floor hand in hand by her girlfriend. Flanked by their friends, Brittany took up Santana's left hand with her right, and draped the other around the crook of her girlfriend's waist. Leading Santana across the floor, Brittany guided the couple effortlessly between the dance floor occupants. With so many years of practiced waltzes in kitchens, Brittany and Santana danced together with an ease and ability lacking from their surrounding pairs of friends.

"I like dancing with you," Brittany whispered in Santana's ear over the music.

"Yeah, me too," Santana replied. "…With you."

With Quinn and Sugar, Mercedes and Rachel, and Brittany and Santana all unreservedly dancing like goofy dopes around the floor for the entire song, no one seemed to notice the intimate way Santana's hand sat lower on Brittany's back than Mercedes' did on Rachel's, the way the fingers of Brittany's right hand thread themselves in between Santana's, or the comfortable lack of personal space between the romantic couple as opposed to the friend pairs. Hiding in plain sight, Santana enjoyed the cover her considerate friends established.

During the following song performed by Kurt and Rory, Brittany relinquished her lead. She allowed Santana to guide her around the floor, encouraging, "Your turn."

As she weaved the two amongst the dancers, Santana spied Mercedes sending some deep, longing looks in Sam's direction before tossing a few quick, guilty ones over to Shane, who was chatting up Finn at their table. Santana immediately recognized the implication of the looks and wondered if Mercedes was cheating on her boyfriend with Sam. Secretly, Santana simultaneously both dreaded and hoped that the girl would ask for her advice.

Passing by Quinn and Sugar, Brittany caught Quinn sending her and Santana a pleasantly strange look. Meeting Quinn's gaze fully, Brittany identified the look as a particular type of pleased – borderline parent proud. Brittany smiled her gratitude at Quinn for what she had allowed for her and her girlfriend. Immediately, Quinn silently nodded back her 'you're welcome.'

After the song ended, Mr. Schuester then took the stage and began performing some unfortunate cover of a song Santana had never heard of, but felt rather certain had no need of ever being sung again. At the center of the dance floor, a small opening grew until an impromptu dance circle formed. In an effort to goad someone into the middle, a few names were chanted as Cooter and Shannon, with most of the older couples, stood around the circle's edge clapping to the beat.

Never one to shy away from showing off his skills, Mike slid into the circle's center and cranked out a few pop-and-locks to the crowd's cheering. When he again joined Tina along the circle, Brittany bounced into the center and started doing the Charleston, with exaggerated lankiness, to crack the entire group up.

"Oh my god, Brittany!" Santana gasped, leaning into Mercedes' side to make sure her friend was watching. Finding her girlfriend endlessly hilarious, Santana doubled over in laughter and howled out her loudest laugh. Sufficiently pleased with herself, Brittany left the middle and tugged on Santana's hand to get the girl to go next.

After a moment of waving her other hand in an attempt to decline, Santana succumbed and shifted to the center. In that imperceptible and uniquely-Santana way of teetering between super cool and hopelessly dopey, Santana performed a few full body rolls. Santana was followed by Mercedes, who showcased her disco steps, and Quinn displaying a couple ballet spins. Mike then retook the limelight and performed some West Coast moves before coaxing Brittany to join him. Both Mike and Brittany tried unsuccessfully to teach everyone to Dougie, but were thrilled when Shannon took the floor rocking her misguided, yet entertainingly animated, attempt at the dance skill.

High from the joy of dancing and of entertaining her friends, Brittany was struck with an idea. She crossed over to stand in front of her girlfriend, suddenly feigning a determined seriousness. She held out her arms in a high, firm arc and waited for Santana to accept. "¡Yo tengo el toro!"

Eagerly intrigued as always by whatever Brittany had in mind, Santana stepped forward and met her girlfriend's pose with a matching feigned seriousness. "Actually, I think tú eres el torero– no, la torera!"

"¡Sí!" Instantly, Brittany swept the couple into the circle and led them around in a mock Paso Doble. With firm posture, a head held high, and a slow-quick-quick pattern, Brittany drew cheers from their small audience and maintained the act of stoicism.

Lacking her girlfriend's composure, Santana quickly broke character and began giggling helplessly as Brittany maneuvered her to and fro. Still upholding her act, Brittany lifted Santana's hand with her own and spun her girlfriend in a tight circle twice quickly. Santana squealed in thrilled delight during the fast spins and was then immediately dipped backward.

Holding Santana strongly within her arms, Brittany leaned her girlfriend dramatically low to the ground, utilizing all of the muscles in her dancer's form to keep them from falling to the floor. After a drawn-out moment, she lifted Santana back upright to the applause and laughter of the dance circle before giving a small bow. To the educated members of the dance floor, Santana's love-struck, cloudy eyes and painfully wide, admiring smile gave her away, but to those unaware, the girl looked flushed and out-of-breath simply from the upside-down pose.

At the song change, the dance circle dissipated and everyone returned to their previous pairs. Inspired by the cheerleaders' move, Sugar then turned to Quinn next to her and dipped her, exercising the choreography from the Troubletones' performance at Sectionals. Their laughter caught Mercedes' attention and she dipped Rachel liked she had learned from their 'Survivor' mash-up. Not a pair to be shown up, the super competitive Brittany and Santana then ran through the choreography's Tango portion with impressive ease.

"Hey y'all, nobody likes a showoff," Mercedes chided.

"Me-me! My turn," Sugar demanded at Quinn. Dissatisfied with the dip Quinn performed, Sugar continued, "No, no, you're doing it all wrong. Here Mercedes, you dip me; you actually know what you're doing." Sugar crossed over to Mercedes and the new pair demonstrated the choreography. Both Quinn and Rachel stood out-of-place on the dance floor after their partners abandoned them for one another.

"You two try it," Brittany encouraged to the two partner-less girls as Mercedes and Sugar joined in the cheering.

"No, I-…" Rachel started.

"I don't think-…" Quinn tried, before being interrupted.

"Oh come Quinn, Berry doesn't bite," Santana added. "…Probably."

The two girls shuffled together at the encouragement and joined leading hands. They fumbled awkwardly in each other's arms for a moment, prompting anxious giggles from both. Quinn managed to dip Rachel well enough, earning a hearty "Brava" from Sugar.

Quinn then shifted to allow Rachel to dip her after, but as they were taking their switched positions, Santana stopped them. "Hold up, she is for sure going to drop you. I mean no offense Rachel, but you don't look like you'd be able to lift a wet rag."

While Rachel rebuked the claim, Brittany faced Quinn and said quietly but earnestly, "I don't think you look like a wet rag."

Catching the glint in her friend's smirk, Quinn let out a single chuckle and returned sarcastically, "Aw, thanks Brittany."

"…can too. And here, I'll show you," Rachel continued, before taking Quinn in her arms. Rachel dipped the girl back and when Quinn was once again upright, she laughed out nervously.

A new song started up and the entire group returned back to dancing around the gym floor like daffy loons. Santana looked over at Shannon dancing in her new husband's arms, over at Artie trying to get Sugar's attention, and at her friends all around her dancing together in their silliest attempts to crack one another up. Her eyes swept over a still flushed Quinn before landing on her beautiful, happy girlfriend in front of her and she flashed Brittany a bright, content smile. Santana made a mental note to thank Quinn later for her thoughtful gesture. And to give her a hard time for getting so flustered by Rachel.


End file.
